1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical stereoscopic observation apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
When a doctor of, for example, neurosurgery conducts surgery on a surgical field of a patient, the doctor may use a surgical microscope to observe an enlarged view of the surgical field. The doctor puts his or her eyes on eyepieces of the microscope and observes an enlarged image of the surgical field through an optical system of the microscope.
Observing the enlarged image of a surgical field with the surgical microscope forces the doctor to always put his or her eyes on the eyepieces of the microscope. If slanting the microscope for better observation of the surgical field, the doctor must incline his or her neck. Namely, the surgical microscope frequently requires the doctor to take an unreasonable posture during surgery.
To deal with this problem, a surgical stereoscopic apparatus for replacing the surgical microscope has been proposed. This apparatus employs a lens barrel incorporating a camera that photographs a surgical field of a patient and provides stereoscopic electronic images of the surgical field. The images are displayed on a monitor and are stereoscopically observed with 3D glasses.
The lens barrel is suspended from and movably supported with a stand. A doctor may hold the lens barrel and optionally changes the position and orientation thereof, thereby choosing an optimum observation direction.
This apparatus does not require the doctor to put his or her eyes on eyepieces, and therefore, the doctor is able to carry out surgery in an optional posture. Not only the doctor but also assistants are able to observe the surgical field on the monitor. Related arts are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H11-318936 (Patent Literature 1).